Blog #7 Writing vs Typing
I have recently been subbing in a 6th grade class and have been astonished at much they have to write. They have to write everything down from math problems, social studies answers, reading class discussion questions, and on top of this, they have a writing portion. My questions are this, are we making our students write too much? Should we be teaching and encouraging typing along with writing?
I know cursive is important. Students should be able to write in print and cursive, but are we making them write too much, and what is the purpose for all this writing? Are we assigning writing assignments in order to improve their handwriting skills? My impression is that writing class is in place in order for them to learn how to put together thoughts into proper grammatical form. Is there any way to decrease the writing time and increase learning and comprehension?
I think we can eliminate some of the wasted time due to hand writing time. We should introduce typing classes. Writing classes are very important! They need to learn how to spell and put thoughts on paper. They need to learn correct punctuation as well, but can’t we “kill two birds with one stone?” Can’t they do all this while typing?
I have a student that types instead of writes during writing time. Alphasmart is the name of the keyboard he uses. It’s not a laptop, but a keyboard with a screen. He plugs in a USB cord and prints off his paper. With wireless printers, every student would not have to hook up their keyboard. They could do all this wirelessly.
Writing class would be a natural time to implement typing skills. Kids get plenty of time to write throughout the school day so this would not sacrifice their handwriting skill development. This presentation gives some positive benefits that keyboarding has to offer such as improving manual dexterity, spelling, and reading.
On the other hand, I did hear a mother tell her student, “You do not need to write in cursive, you never will again for the rest of your life. All you need to do is write your name!” On the extreme end, some people feel like cursive is outdated and needs to be thrown out. I disagree; it is important but let’s prepares students for the real world. They will need to type when they get to junior high, high school, and an occupation. Writing and typing should get equal importance in 5th and 6th grade in my opinion.
Is this even a debate in the education realm? It was hard to find much information. I think this is an important debate that will gain more heated debate attention in the future.
What do you think?
Philip
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Philip,
ReplyDeleteI did not know that teachers were making young students write that much. I do know that students in my classes HATE to hand write anything. They are young adults and would rather type 3 pages then write 1 page. Most of them can type pretty well but putting sentences together is difficult and the comprehension componet is missing. Must of my college students have to take English 101 with a lab to relearn those skills. Would more writing help this? I don't know.
I don't think at my level or when I was in high school the teachers made me write too much but that was years ago. I guess times have changed.
Should we be teaching and encouraging typing along with writing?
Yes, I think we should by teaching typing along with writing. This will only make them better students and workers in the future. I am so glad I took typing (with the old paper type writers)in high school and it has and will be with me for a life time.
Good topic and have a good week.
Philip,
ReplyDeleteYou make an interesting point. It is amazing how much you can get a high school student to do with a computer; given the same assignment cut in half but taking out the technology seems harder to the students. And the technology integration is a step in the right direction if we are implementing it correctly.
The majority of jobs that these young people will fill will require typing skills outweighing "good" penmanship (although important) but I'm not sure that all of the writing leads to "good" penmanship, simply endurance which probably isn't as important as the typing and technology skills.
Great topic!
Boy Phillip, we are toally on 2 different sides of this coin. NO way are we requiring our kids to actually write too much. Actual handwriting is a lost art. Have you tried to decipher a students handwriting lately? It is atrocious. I hate to hear you say handwriting is wasting time. I still unconciously somewhat evaluate someones intelligence based on the quality of their hand writing. I am shocked at the mother that told her child they won't need to write anything but their name. AArrgghh. That seems a bit naive. I am not so sure kids get ample time to write during the school day. We have hand held PDA-like devices where kids can type their notes instead of hand writing them. So where are they getting to write? Typing and keyboarding will always be taught and learned in this technology age. We don't need to force that issue, but we do need to keep handwriting alive.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Haraseth
I have mixed feeling about typing vs. writing and see both sides. I do feel that all students need to be able to write properly. You still need to know how to write so people can read it (i.e. any application) but you also need to know how to type. I have students that type with two fingers with 10 wpm. One of my students also uses an Alphasmart because his handwriting is so poor. I do have him write and feel that it is important that he does write everyday because he might no always have access to an Alphasmart.
ReplyDeleteI do feel that it depends on the teacher for how much or little they will make their students write. I know a 5th grade teacher that makes her students use only cursive when they write. At first her students complain but by the end of the year they all prefer it to printing. I do think that printing is slower that writing in cursive.
We use technology all the time, if we have our student only use a computer to type, I do feel that writing will be a dying art and if writing is offered as a class, who would take it if they know that they are only going to use a computer